2012: Science or Superstition (46-84)

Summary:
This part of the book mainly talk about the different World Ages. It also talked about the binary star theory, which I completely did not understand. It mentioned briefly about the Ice Age and the Earth's crystal displacement which occurred in "not-too-distant past". Marduk, a cylinder comet, crashed into a planet that used to be between Mars and Jupiter called Tiamat, and caused this planet to completely shatter creating what is today the asteroid belt. The terrestrial impact was so powerful that it altered Earth's rotational axis and cause massive crustal displacement. The face of the Earth was completely changed. This, according to the book, was one of the causes of the recent Ice Age.

What I found most interesting with this part of the book is the history of the previous four World Ages. On the first World Age, the trinity of gods created human beings to keep the darkness of the world company. However this first attempt was unsuccessful (they were incapable of speech) so were cursed to be eaten and sacrificed. On the second World Age, the god attempted to make men out of mud but this version of man could not speak nor move and were quickly dissolved in water. On the third World Age, the gods created wooden men that could speak but had no soul or blood and were not able to praise the. Again, they destroyed this life form with The Great Flood. Any surviving wooden people were turned into monkeys. Lastly, on the fourth World Age, men flesh were made out of white and yellow corn (there were only four men however). The gods were finally proud of their work. However, the great "Creator and the Maker" did not like this pleasure; they felt as if they knew it all. So they blew mist into the four men's eyes which clouded their visions. This is all the Mayan version doctrine. The Mediterranean interpretation is somewhat different than the Mayans. An ancient Greek poet named Hesoid, wrote an epic poem called Works and Days which explained their version of the four previous World Ages. In order, they were named: The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, The Heroic Age, and The Iron Age. This involve a lot about the Greek gods and the underworld. I guess this is where this whole Greek Mythology come from.

Quote:
"We need to comprehend the regression of our own species, or humanity will commit ecocide" (Bruce 57).

Reaction:
I smirked at this quote because I did not believe ecocide was a word. I was thinking more of, "suicide" or "homocide" but I never really expected such word as ecocide. It sounds funny saying it too. "You have just committed ecocide, you should be ashamed." Haha. Anyways, I believe this quote is also powerful. It is basically saying that we, humans, will destroy the ecosystem if we do not take the time to understand where we come from. It's interesting how learning about our evolution can help save nature. We should all take the time to learn this because right now, nature is not in harmony and we need to fix that before worst natural disasters occur.

2012: Science or Superstition (1-45)

Summary:
When I picked this book, 2012: Science or Superstition by Alexandra Bruce, for my ROAR book, I was hoping that it will really interesting and easy-ish to read. Reality is, it is full of information and vocabulary that I am not familiar with. The author is really strong with her sentence phrasing which makes it hard to understand sometimes. I think it is mostly because her book is basically ALL based on research, research, and research. So far, there is a deep explanation of Mayan history and their Long Count calendar which ended at December 21, 2012 which is set to be the "end of the world" for modern people. Some researchers argued that Mayans were extraterrestrial beings, or aliens, that inhabited on Earth and predicted the future. Bruce mocks these researchers and explain that their reasoning make no sense. Based to this calendar, surprisingly, the world will NOT end in 2012, just that this "World Age" will and a beginning of a new World Age will begin. That means that all human life will be wiped out by natural disasters. According to the Popol Vuh, we are currently living in the Fifth World Age. The previous World Age ended 5, 125 years ago by floods. This World Age is expected to end on Dec 21, 2012 primarily by earthquakes. This is creepy because within the past year, the world experience numerous disastrous earthquake including the tragedic Haiti and Japan earthquake.

Quote:
"How would the governments of our planet prepare six billion people for the end of the world? They wouldn't... No government would really want to admit that they don't have the situation handled" (Bruce 5).

Reaction:
When I read this, I automatically thought of 2012 the movie... and of course I though of Obama. In the movie, the US president (also black) restrained from telling its citizens the truth that the world is "ending" and that everyone will die because of all the natural disasters that is very soon to come. It isn't until last minute that he informs the public and say to his people, "do not panic" and BAM! earthquakes and tsunami take away the lives of the citizens. He knew from the beginning that a big destruction was going to happen, but since he knew that he can't handle the situation, he kept it a secret from the public. It made me think of Obama and the other people who work for the government. I wonder if they would do the same thing that happened in the movie.. IF this ever really happens.